When Dick Durbin pitched his rant on the Senate floor about bankers who "own the place," he asked his colleagues whether they were going to listen to families facing job loss and bills they can’t pay, or the American Bankers Association.

The ABA PAC also gave $520,000 in political contributions in 1Q 2009, much of it to members of the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committee, so it’s little surprise they get to have their say in Committee hearings about what should and shouldn’t be done with regard to credit cards.

Tellingly, when the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights was passed in the House, it did not contain caps on credit card interest rates.

In March 2008, BofA and other big banks successfully prevented credit card customers from testifying at a hearing on Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s (D-NY) Credit Card Bill of Rights. The banks demanded that customers who had flown from all over the country sign waivers allowing their personal financial information to be revealed to the public before they could testify. They refused.

Those hefty political contributions apparently give banks the right to determine who the Committee will and will not hear from, and under what conditions they can testify.

Jane Hamsher

Jane is the founder of Firedoglake.com. Her work has also appeared on the Huffington Post, Alternet and The American Prospect. She’s the author of the best selling book Killer Instinct and has produced such films Natural Born Killers and Permanent Midnight. She lives in Washington DC.Subscribe in a reader